|
standard
<br />L Friday, July 17, 2009
<br />America's New Energy Dependency: China's Metals
<br />A clean-energy economy needs rare-earth metals to succeed. China has a near monopoly
<br />By Kent Garber
<br />Posted July 1, 2oo9
<br />In 2007, a standoff unfolded between China and several American companies, including W.R. Grace, a major supplier of oil
<br />refining products. China was threatening to withhold supplies that keep refiners in business.
<br />People Who Read A worried State Department intervened. By then, W.R. Grace had only a three-month supply of
<br />This Also Read the special metals it needs for its refining products. Because the metals come almost exclusively
<br />China's Metals and from China, if the government had not acted, sources say, oil refineries could have been forced to
<br />U.S. Energy shut down, possibly triggering shortages across the country.
<br />Dependence
<br />The metals W.R. Grace needed belong to a group known as "rare earths." They are the backbone
<br />Obama of the Information Age and, potentially, the clean energy future.. They are in iPods, Blackberrys,
<br />Administration and plasma TVs. They are powerful and compact; they are exceedingly efficient. In many cases,
<br />Pouring $1 Billion there are no substitutes. On the periodic table, they have their own section, 17 metals in all,
<br />Into Clean Coal
<br />Project reflecting their unique atomic structure.
<br />The Green Energy Fifty years ago, the world's economy was built on steel, aluminum, and iron. Today, rare-earth
<br />Economy: What It metals are reshaping it. But they are not easy to acquire, not anymore. In the 1970s and 198os,
<br />Will Take to Get the United States was the world's leading producer. Today, China provides nearly 97 percent of
<br />There the world's supply. It has a near monopoly, and it is cutting exports.
<br />White House Denies
<br />Report That Obamas
<br />Dominance. The strategic implications of this growing imbalance are vast, particularly for
<br />Have Ended Church defense and energy. Wind turbines and electric cars have become clean energy symbols, but they
<br />Search are merely final products, the visible results of a supply chain that spans international borders
<br /> for the most part, is largely overlooked by policymakers. At the bottom of this chain, at its
<br />and
<br />Energy and ,
<br />most basic level, are rare-earth metals mined from the Earth's crust and made into magnets or
<br />Environment
<br />, , , ,,. ;.„ n„"„, other parts, then put into motors or batteries.
<br />China's dominance in this arena, and its displacement of American leadership, are not accidental. In 1992, Deng Xiaoping,
<br />then the country's most powerful politician, outlined a plan. "The Middle East has oil; we have rare earths," he said. "We must
<br />develop these rare earths. " Today this phrase is emblazoned, like a campaign slogan, across the roof of at least one Chinese
<br />factory.
<br />Deng's call to arms has been carried out nearly flawlessly. China dominates the world market and in recent months has taken
<br />control of mines in Brazil and Australia, thereby eliminating potential competitors. It is poised to do with rare earths what the
<br />Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries has done with oil: make the world dependent. In 2002, China exported about
<br />standard
|